6.12.2007

Beevolution.

The leaders of the drones rose up and called for a change in the social order: no more queens! The queen, Hymenoptera, took this in stride. First, it was only the drones, which might live or die for all that anybody cared, if only they mated when they ought. Second, She was just as glad to lay down the burdon of producing 2,000 eggs per day as the drones were to lay down the burden of...of...

Well, whatever. If they didn't know a good thing when they saw it, so bee it.

What Hymenoptera did not understand was that the drones had a secret dance of their own. Using copper wire and stolen refrigerator magnets, the drones had passed down, through the generations, a new bee technology, powered by the waves from nearby cell phones...

Within a few years, it was beevolution from Brazil to the Kenai Fjords. The population dipped for a time, but rose steadily as the techno-drones researched increasing pollen production in flowers, more efficient dance languages, and...shh...Royal King Jelly.